In order to further promote the high-quality development of China's hydrogen energy industry, the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design has written a series of articles on "Ten Solutions to Hydrogen Energy" on the basis of previous hydrogen energy research.
The topic is divided into ten chapters, including "Unlocking the New Era of Hydrogen Energy", "The Green Tracing of Hydrogen Energy", "The Mystery of Hydrogen-based Energy Production", "The Journey of Hydrogen-based Energy Flow", "The Puzzle of Hydrogen-based Energy Application", "The Symphony of Hydrogen and Electricity", "The Hydrogen Code of the New Energy System", "The Secret of the Scale of Hydrogen-based Energy", "The Key Technology of Hydrogen Energy" and "The Vision of the Global Green Hydrogen Energy Center".
In view of a series of problems in the development of hydrogen energy, the "Ten Solutions to Hydrogen Energy" puts forward forward-looking ideas to provide reference for practitioners in the energy industry, market expansion guidance for enterprises, and cognitive channels for the public. We hope that the release and dissemination of the "Ten Solutions to Hydrogen Energy" can stimulate more innovative thinking, gather the strength of all parties, form an industry consensus, promote the healthy development of the hydrogen energy industry, and contribute to the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system in China.
Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is the elemental substance of hydrogen on Earth, which usually exists in gaseous form, and has the dual identity of industrial raw material and energy carrier. In the past, hydrogen was more often used in the chemical industry as a basic industrial feedstock or product, or as an important component of fossil feedstock solidified in coal, oil or natural gas. Under the dual pressure of global fossil energy shortage and climate change, hydrogen has attracted more and more attention due to its renewable, zero-emission, and high-energy-density green attributes.
In the 16th century, Swiss chemists discovered that the process of dissolving iron in sulfuric acid releases a mysterious gas, the first recorded artificial acquisition of hydrogen element; In 1766, Henry Cavendish collected hydrogen and ignited it to obtain water through similar experiments. In 1783, the French chemist Lavoisier first named hydrogen, which means "hydrogenous element"; In 1800, two British scientists, Nicholson and Carlisle, invented the electrolyzer based on the first use of electric current to split water into gas, revealing the hidden but intimate relationship between hydrogen and electricity for the vision of a green future.
Hydrogen energy is the energy released when hydrogen molecules and oxygen molecules react to form water, which should be the energy of water relative to hydrogen and oxygen. The energy of 1 mol of hydrogen is the difference between the energy of 1 mol of hydrogen and 1 2 mol of oxygen and the energy of 1 mol of water (liquid). In the standard state (standard atmospheric pressure, 25), the standard enthalpy change is -285At 830kj, the change in standard free energy is -237183kj。The calorific value of hydrogen is as high as 120 mJ kg, which is about 2 of 92 gasoline (about 44 mj kg).7 times that of natural gas (about 46mj kg).6 times, standard coal (about 29.3mj kg).1 times.
In fact, hydrogen has been used as an energy source for much longer than we think, as early as the end of the 19th century, in order to solve the problem of how to store the electricity generated by windmills, the Danish inventor La Kuhl produced hydrogen by electrolysis of water from a water mill windmill, and used the hydrogen directly as a reserve fuel. This can also be seen as the first time that hydrogen was produced, stored and used as a renewable energy source, although there was no similar concept at the time. Historically, La Cour has used electricity from windmills to produce hydrogen and stored it in 12 cubic meter tanks, and the town has not been interrupted for several years, which can also be considered the first time that hydrogen has been used for grid energy storage.
The oil crisis in the 1970s, air pollution and acid rain and other environmental problems made the use of coal and nuclear energy to produce hydrogen in the 70s of the 20th century attracted much attention, to the 80s when oil prices fell and the outbreak of large-scale boycott of nuclear energy, the enthusiasm for hydrogen energy research cooled down, and at the beginning of the 21st century until today, with the issue of climate change being mentioned again, the research on hydrogen energy in society is heating up again.
The United States was the first country to adopt hydrogen energy as a national strategy, and in 1970, the General Motors Technology Center first proposed the concept of "hydrogen economy". In 1990, the United States promulgated the Hydrogen Energy Research, Development and Model Act, and formulated a five-year plan for hydrogen energy research and development. In November 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy issued the National Hydrogen Energy Development Roadmap, which designed and elaborated on the purpose of hydrogen energy development in the United States, various factors affecting the development of hydrogen energy, as well as the technical status, challenges and future development paths of hydrogen energy. Since then, the United States has promulgated a series of decrees and policies to gradually transform the concept of "hydrogen economy" into reality. In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy released the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap (Draft), pointing out that clean hydrogen will contribute about 10% of carbon emission reductions by 2050, and that U.S. clean hydrogen demand will reach 10 million tonnes-year by 2030, 20 million tonnes per year by 2040 and 50 million tonnes per year by 2050.
As one of the earliest regions to explore the application of hydrogen energy, the EU has certain advantages in the development of hydrogen energy, with relatively complete hydrogen energy development policies, mature scientific research systems and large investment. In 2018, the European Union proposed its Long-Term Strategy 2050, which will allocate 35% of its Horizon Europe plan to hydrogen to invest in climate-related targets and develop innovative, cost-effective solutions, mainly hydrogen and fuel cells. The 2019 European Green Deal proposes that green hydrogen will account for more than 50% of hydrogen applications in the industrial sector by 2030, setting more ambitious development targets for the construction of fuel cells and hydrogen refueling stations for shipping. In 2020, the European Union issued a guidance document on hydrogen development, the European Hydrogen Strategy, which aims to provide a clear vision and roadmap for Europe to build an integrated hydrogen market. In 2022, the "RepowerEU Plan" proposes a number of policies to promote the development of hydrogen energy, striving to achieve 20 million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, establishing a "European Hydrogen Bank", and investing 3 billion euros to help develop the hydrogen energy market.
Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Finland and other countries have successively adopted national hydrogen energy strategies. The development of hydrogen energy in Europe is represented by Germany, which has a large demand for decarbonization of traditional industrial enterprises, and hydrogen has been deployed in steel, chemical industry, power generation and heating and other fields. In June 2020, the German Cabinet adopted the National Hydrogen Strategy, which aims to promote the development of the hydrogen energy industry and seize the peak in the field of hydrogen energy technology. The National Hydrogen Strategy announced a minimum of €9 billion for hydrogen development; After France announced the "National Hydrogen Strategy", the National Hydrogen Council was formally established, which is different from the "blue hydrogen" development route of fossil fuels combined with carbon capture and storage technology promoted by some EU countries, France has always adhered to the "green hydrogen" route of renewable energy; Spain is rich in renewable energy resources and has a high proportion of installed renewable energy capacity, and Spain regards hydrogen production from renewable energy as an important strategic option for energy and economic transformation. Italy will promote hydrogen fuel vehicles as a breakthrough in the development of the hydrogen energy industry, and will greatly increase the application scale of local hydrogen fuel vehicles and gradually replace diesel vehicles; Hydrogen is part of Finland's national energy and climate strategy, and Finland's Hydrogen Roadmap for Finland focuses on the production of synthetic fuels, the production of low-carbon hydrogen, and the replacement of coal with hydrogen to reduce carbon emissions in industry.
At this stage, Japan has a solid foundation for the hydrogen energy industry, formed a mechanism for formulating and revising policies to adapt to industrial development, and has successively issued more than 10 strategic policies for hydrogen energy. As early as April 2014, Japan decided to implement the "Basic Energy Plan" and set the goal of building a "hydrogen society". In December 2017, Japan** formulated the world's first national-level hydrogen energy strategy, the "Energy Basic Strategy", which set clear goals for each subdivision of the hydrogen energy industry chain. In March 2019, in order to ensure the realization of the goals set by the basic strategy, Japan** formulated the "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Strategic Roadmap", further refined the hydrogen energy development goals, proposed relevant strategic initiatives, and set up an evaluation working group to regularly track and evaluate the progress in various fields. Under the guidance of the "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Strategic Roadmap", in September 2019, Japan** formulated the "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology Development Strategy", determined to focus on ten technologies in three major fields, and then issued the "Green Growth Strategy" in October 2020, clarifying the positioning of hydrogen energy, and revised it to the "2050 Carbon Neutral Green Growth Strategy" on June 18, 2021, to promote institutional and regulatory reforms, increase financial support, and promote innovative research and development. Realize industrial structure and economic and social transformation.
The Middle East, represented by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is actively laying out the hydrogen energy industry, and has established extensive cooperation with Germany, the United States, Japan and South Korea in the fields of science and technology, demonstration and other fields. Countries in the Middle East have not yet issued a clear hydrogen energy development strategy, but the Middle East is a region dominated by energy output, and the parallel development of blue hydrogen and green hydrogen will become an important path for the development of hydrogen energy in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In 2016, Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 put forward the goal of diversifying its economy and reducing its dependence on oil, and in 2017, it began to build a "new future" smart city powered entirely by renewable energy - NEOM, and laid out the green hydrogen industry in NEOM to accelerate the implementation of Vision 2030. The UAE is also committed to reducing carbon emissions in the entire industry chain, planning to reduce carbon emissions by 24% by 2030 compared with 2016, and will rely on resource advantages to carry out the layout of the hydrogen energy industry, not only expanding the scale of blue hydrogen production through CCUS technology, but also incorporating the production of green hydrogen from renewable energy such as wind and solar into the development plan.
As of December 2022, 42 countries and regions around the world have issued clear hydrogen energy development strategies and plans, and more than 20 major economies such as Europe, America, Japan and South Korea have elevated the development of hydrogen energy to the national strategic level, and have successively formulated development plans, roadmaps and relevant support policies to accelerate the process of industrialization development.
In the face of the increasingly severe and complex international political and economic situation, the turbulence of the geopolitical pattern caused by the great power game has had a serious impact on energy security, and the global energy supply and demand pattern is facing a deep adjustment. China's oil and gas imports are highly concentrated, shipping channels are risky, and the external situation facing China's energy security is becoming more complex. Under the dual requirements of energy security and carbon emission reduction, the development of carbon-free and low-carbon fuel-related industries has ushered in major opportunities. Green hydrogen produced from renewable energy can replace hydrogen produced from fossil fuels in the industrial sector, and can also play an important role in fields that are difficult to achieve carbon reduction through renewable energy, such as steel, chemical industry, and transportation.
Carbon emission reduction in the power sector is the main battlefield to achieve the "dual carbon" goal, and its main means is to continuously increase the proportion of new energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy in the power system. In recent years, the cost of new energy power generation in China has declined rapidly, and the installed capacity has increased rapidly, but photovoltaic and wind power have the characteristics of intermittency, randomness and volatility, which cannot directly meet the needs of the power grid and users.
As a way to solve the problem, hydrogen can be deeply integrated with the power system in four aspects: source, grid, load and storage, to support the large-scale development and utilization of new energy.
In terms of power supply, hydrogen can reduce carbon emissions at the power generation end through methane combustion in gas turbines, hydrogen fuel cells, and ammonia combustion in coal-fired power boilers, so as to achieve flexible regulation at the power generation end. In terms of the grid, hydrogen can be transported over long distances through pipelines, which can be used as an effective supplement to UHV power transmission. In terms of load, electrolyzed water can be used as a flexible load, which can provide flexible response on the demand side and realize large-scale consumption of renewable energy. In terms of energy storage, hydrogen, as a means of energy storage, can realize the safe and efficient conversion of electricity, heat and hydrogen, and is a form of long-term energy storage across days, months and seasons.
At present, the world is in a new era of energy production and consumption revolution, and building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system is the direction of future energy development. China's energy structure is dominated by high-carbon fossil energy, and to promote carbon emission reduction, it is necessary to promote the transformation of the energy structure dominated by fossil energy. In the future, oil and gas resources will be co-developed, converted and utilized with renewable energy to form a new energy system composed of oil and gas resources represented by fossil energy and renewable energy represented by hydrogen energy and electric energy. The new energy system should be supported by the new power system with new energy as the main body and the new non-electric system with "new oil and gas" as the main body, which promote and rely on each other, and use green hydrogen energy as a bridge to jointly form a new energy system of Chinese style. To this end, the new energy system needs to seek breakthroughs in the construction of distributed energy facilities, the development of multi-energy integrated regional energy supply systems, and the support of clean fuel access to the oil and gas pipeline network.
Large-scale electrification is a powerful way to reduce carbon emissions. However, there are still some sectors that are difficult to decarbonize through direct electrification, including steel, chemicals, road transport, shipping and aviation. Due to the dual properties of hydrogen energy as a power fuel and industrial raw material, the construction of an "electricity-hydrogen" coupling system can stabilize the power system while realizing the expansion of green energy into a new energy system in the form of hydrogen, which plays an important role in areas where it is difficult to achieve carbon reduction through direct electrification.
Hydrogen energy can promote the development of a higher proportion of renewable energy and effectively reduce China's dependence on oil and gas imports. The coupling of "electricity-hydrogen" can promote the consumption of renewable energy, help reduce the cost of renewable electricity, and realize the joint improvement of the economy of green electricity and green hydrogen. The large-scale construction of hydrogen storage facilities and hydrogen transmission pipeline networks can realize the spatiotemporal transfer of energy and promote the regional balance of energy and consumption in China; As energy hubs, hydrogen energy and electric energy are easier to couple multiple energy sources such as heat, cold, and fuel, and jointly establish an interconnected modern energy network, form a highly resilient energy system, and improve the efficiency and economy of the energy system.
The mass energy density of hydrogen (120 mJ kg) is high, but the volume energy density at room temperature and pressure (standard condition 107 mJ m) is low, and ** limit concentration (4%) is low. At present, hydrogen is mainly stored and transported in the form of compressed gas or liquid, and the economy is not ideal, and people have been looking for efficient carriers of hydrogen to achieve safe, efficient and inexpensive storage and transportation of hydrogen energy.
The research on ammonia as a hydrogen storage carrier and an ideal zero-carbon fuel has developed rapidly in recent years, and its production technology is industrially mature, which is less difficult to store and transport, and easier to store and transport for a long time. Ammonia can be mixed with pulverized coal to generate electricity, can also be used alone in boilers and gas turbines to generate electricity, or can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels in marine internal combustion engines, which will become an important secondary energy source with the advancement of technology. At present, the use of ammonia for hydrogen and ammonia for hydrogen has also become one of the international development trends, and major economies attach great importance to its large-scale production and use.
Methanol is also an ideal hydrogen storage carrier. As an important chemical raw material, it is an important intermediate and solvent in the organic synthesis industry, and has an important position in the chemical industry. As a power fuel, methanol has a high octane number and can be used as a gasoline additive or substitute in internal combustion engines, which can not only achieve efficient combustion of internal combustion engines, but also reduce carbon and nitrogen oxide emissions, and can be used as a low-cost alternative to gasoline.
On the one hand, ammonia and methanol are important downstream products of hydrogen, which are widely used in industry and have relatively mature green production methods; On the other hand, as carriers of hydrogen, ammonia and methanol are more convenient to store and transport, and can be used as important fossil energy substitutes to achieve carbon reduction and emission reduction in power generation, transportation and other fields. From the perspective of energy supply, hydrogen-based energy is similar to electric energy, and in the long run, it will become an important secondary energy source in the future clean energy system. From the perspective of energy consumption, hydrogen-based energy is an important carrier for energy-using terminals to achieve green and low-carbon transformation and development. From the perspective of industrial production process, hydrogen-based energy is an important clean and low-carbon industrial raw material. Therefore, we can already vaguely see the important role of hydrogen-based energy, including hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol, in the future energy system.
As a potential secondary energy source after electric energy, hydrogen-based energy has diversified development paths. From the perspective of the first end, in the future, a diversified hydrogen supply pattern will be formed with renewable energy hydrogen production as the main body, fossil energy hydrogen production + carbon capture, and biomass hydrogen production as supplements; From the perspective of consumption, in the future, a diversified application situation of hydrogen-based energy return power generation, transportation consumption, industrial consumption and cross-regional transportation will be formed.
Compared with developed countries, the technical level and industrial foundation of hydrogen energy in China are relatively weak, and there is still a certain gap between the performance, service life and manufacturing process of equipment and products in each link compared with the international first technology echelon. However, China has a good hydrogen-based energy market and application market, and is currently the only country in the world with the advantages of the whole hydrogen energy industry chain, and the large-scale advantages of developing hydrogen energy are significant. The hydrogen energy industry chain includes four main stages: production, storage, transportation and use, and its diversification is significant, and large-scale development is an effective way to overcome problems and reduce costs and increase efficiency in the hydrogen energy industry. The construction of a hydrogen-based energy system can effectively release the potential of large-scale new energy hydrogen production in China, promote the large-scale development of the entire hydrogen energy industry chain, effectively accelerate the improvement of the core competitiveness of China's hydrogen energy field, cultivate the second growth pole of China's new energy industry, and promote the sustained and high-quality development of the domestic economy.
At present, the world is experiencing great changes unseen in a century, and China has put forward a new energy development strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation". Based on national conditions, accelerating the large-scale development of hydrogen energy can not only escort China's energy security and low-carbon transformation, but also is expected to help the energy transition under global climate governance through the "hydrogen energy brand", strengthen international cooperation in the field of hydrogen energy, and provide Chinese solutions for global energy security and green transformation. Looking forward to the future, the hydrogen energy industry has a lot to offer, and let's work together to prepare for its next magnificent development. (Author: Li Sheng, Jiang Hai, Yu Guanpei, Author's Affiliation: Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design Institute).
"Ten solutions to hydrogen energy" is the author's superficial understanding of the industry, and some of the data and ** in this article are quoted from the International Renewable Energy Agency, the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Energy Administration, the China Electricity Council, the Hydrogen Energy Branch of the China Industrial Development Promotion Association, the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design, the General Institute of Electric Power Planning and Design and other units issued data and related reports. The relevant content, data and opinions in this article are for reference only and do not constitute the basis for investment and other decision-making, and the author does not assume any responsibility for any losses caused by the use of the content of this article.